


Walking a Mile in His Shoes

by PsychoMeows



Series: UTMV Stories [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dreamtale (Undertale), Angst, Brotherly Love, Child Abuse, Gen, Naive Dream, Nightmare and Dream are kids, Passive Nightmare, Protective Dream, Sad, Sad Ending, Sad Nightmare, Swapping places, Tragedy, Twins, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:20:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26341045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PsychoMeows/pseuds/PsychoMeows
Summary: Dream is really worried about his twin, he knows there is something wrong but Nightmare won't tell him what it is and never wants Dream to find out but he does.Dream is shocked to find out that the villagers have been hurting his beloved brother and decides to do anything he can to help him but talking and pleading with the abusers doesn't work... What if they swap places for the day...?
Relationships: Dream & Nightmare, Nightmare & Dream
Series: UTMV Stories [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1914103
Comments: 19
Kudos: 135





	1. Swapping

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer - Dreamtale belongs to Joku. This is purely a fanfiction written for fun and is not meant to be canon in any way. It's just a little "what if" I came up with. Please support the original work.

"Nighty, are you okay?" Dream asked as he sat down next to his twin and crossed his legs.

Nightmare glanced up at Dream with his eyes of a second and then looked back at his book. "I'm fine, why do you ask?" He asked as he turned the page with an audible flip.

"You have new injuries. I'm worried about you, you've been getting hurt a lot recently." Dream frowned at his brother who wasn't even looking at him as he spoke.

"It's nothing. So I'm a bit clumsy. I'm fine, really. Don't worry about it."

Dream reached out to touch his twin's shoulder but when he did Nightmare hissed in pain and flinched away. "You're hurt. What happened?"

Nightmare shrugged, his attention still on his book. "I fell out of the tree. It's not that bad, a few days and it'll be healed."

"How did you fall out of the tree?" Dream asked, he couldn't help but feel his brother had been lying. Nightmare spent a lot of time up the tree, he wouldn't just randomly fall out of it. Not to mention all these falls he'd been having recently... Nightmare had never been clumsy and Dream felt like even if he was getting clumsy for whatever reason it would've happened in front of him by now. He always got hurt when Dream wasn't around and Dream knew that Nightmare only ever ran around and played with him, when he was alone he just sat and read so how could he have fallen? Maybe he was getting more adventurous but anytime Dream invited him to play Nightmare refused until Dream bothered him enough. Things just weren't adding up.

"A bird startled me."

"How?"

"I was invested in a book and didn't see it until it rustled the leaves when it flew off."

"And that made you fall out the tree?"

"Yes. Dream, must you interrogate me!? I'm trying to read!"

Dream was taken aback by his brother's snapping and just stared at him. Nightmare was being too defensive about it but no matter how hard Dream thought he couldn't think of any reason for his brother to lie or any other way that he could've gotten hurt. "I'm sorry," Dream muttered, "I'm just worried about you."

Nightmare sighed and picked up a bookmark, slipped it into his book, put the book to the side and then turned to face his twin. "Don't. There's nothing to be worried about. I'll try to be more careful from now on. I'm not even badly hurt."

Dream frowned but gave in; he didn't know how to get the truth out of his twin. "If you say so, but I'll still always worry about you! You're my brother!"

That made Nightmare roll his eyes but he put an arm around Dream and pulled him close. He didn't want to upset his brother, Dream should just be happy without him. "Thanks... For worrying, but I'm okay."

Dream hugged his brother tightly. "Don't forget, I'll always love you, Brother!"

With another sigh Nightmare returned the tight hug. "Love you too, Dream."

Dream just couldn't stop worrying. It wasn't normal to fall so much, it wasn't normal to have so many nasty falls that left such painful injuries. That had to mean they weren't normal falls like his brother was saying, he either had something wrong with his body that was causing him to fall and in that case he really needed to see a doctor or he was being attacked by someone or something. Dream didn't think anyone in the village would hurt his twin, they were all so nice but then who was hurting him? Maybe it was a big wild animal...

No, nothing made any sense. Nothing. All the theories Dream came up with didn't make sense. Any time Dream did try to bring it up to his friends in the village they assured him that Nightmare was fine and that if it was really bad he'd do something about it. They told him he didn't need to worry about a few little falls. But they didn't know Nightmare that well. They didn't see how bad it really was and they didn't see how depressed he was becoming. Dream appreciated that they were trying to cheer him up but that didn't help Nightmare, there was still something wrong. Dream just wanted to know what it was so he could help.

He walked back to the tree after spending the day away from it. It had been a long day but he was looking forward to spending the evening with his twin and giving him the new books he'd gotten. He smiled at the thought of Nightmare's happy face when he gave him the books. It was clear that Nightmare was depressed but Dream would do anything to cheer him up.

As he neared the tree he heard a whack and a scream of pain followed by laughter. Dream stopped and frowned; something wasn't right. Someone was hurt.

"Stop screaming! You deserve this!" Someone shouted and then there was another whack with another scream.

Dream dropped the bag of books and took off running. He had to stop whoever was fighting but he froze when he saw it wasn't a fight but a beating. His own brother was being beaten by three villagers; one of the them had his belt off and was using it as a whip, that explained the whacking noises. Another was kicking Nightmare and the third seemed to be on watch with a rock in his hand ready to throw it at the little guardian should he try to run.

"P-Please, no more..." Nightmare was curled in on himself, sobbing as he pulled himself in tighter, his arms covering his face and shaking with fear.

The guy with the belt brought it down again hitting Nightmare's side. "You're evil! You don't get to beg for mercy!" The others laughed and egged the belt guy on.

Dream couldn't watch this any longer he dashed forward and shoved the belt guy before he could whip his twin again. It wasn't a hard push but enough that the attacker stumbled backwards.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Dream cried as he stood in front of his hurt twin and spread out his arms. He had to protect Nightmare.

The three attackers looked at each other and then back at Dream. The man with the belt laughed awkwardly and spoke up. "Aww, come on Dream, we're not done yet!"

Dream just looked at them in horror. How could they? If they had a fight why weren't they just using words and talking through it? Nightmare was beaten down and curled up, in no way trying to fight back. Not like he could if he wanted to with those wounds plus it being three against one and Nightmare was so much smaller than them, Nightmare was just a child and they were adults. Dream just had no words to express how horrified he was at what they were doing to his twin.

"Yeah," the man with the rock agreed with his friend. "Why stop our fun? We were enjoying ourselves!"

Dream never thought he'd be so disgusted with someone's happiness... No, this isn't happiness, its fake happiness brought on only by the pain of another. "Y-You were hurting him! How could you!?"

The three of them looked at each other again and the man who was kicking Nightmare spoke up. "He's evil, Dream. We thought you'd be happy! We were getting rid of all the bad emotions."

"He's not evil!" Dream shouted, "He's my brother! There's a balance, we need both the positive and negative apples! He's not evil for protecting the balance! I'd never be happy with my brother hurt like this..." Dream was shaking, he just couldn't... He couldn't believe anyone would want to hurt Nightmare like this.

"Dream, come on," the first man tried to reason, "he's manipulating you, he-"

"No!" Dream shouted. "Leave, now." He didn't know how to deal with them and he was worried about his brother. The attackers once again looked to each other and fled once they realised that they wouldn't get Dream on their side so easily believing that Nightmare had him tricked.

Dream paid them no mind as he turned quickly and fell to his knees next to Nightmare and, being very careful, he reached out a hand and stroked Nightmare's skull. Nightmare hadn't moved once since Dream had showed up and he still didn't, all he did was whimper and shake.

Dream slowly got to work healing his brother's wounds. Nightmare sobbed and shook, he tried to pull away but found he was too sore to move so he lay there and let Dream heal him until the pain began to subside. The older twin muttered something under his breath and once again tried to get away.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that," Dream said gently.

Nightmare slowly lowered his arms and peaked up at Dream, his eyes filled with tears. "I said; why are you helping me?"

"Because you're my brother and I love you," Dream replied quickly. "You didn't deserve that. I don't understand why they would even do it... This has been going on for a while, hasn't it?"

Nightmare nodded and slowly pulled himself up and limped over to the tree. Dream chased him, worried his brother was going to try to avoid him, he wasn't even done healing him yet. Nightmare just sat down and lent against the tree and let his brother kneel in front of him and continue his healing.

"Everyone hates me, Dream. No one wants me. They say I'm evil because I protect the 'bad' apples. Everything that goes wrong for them is my fault. They only want you." Nightmare looked away from his twin. He really didn't want Dream to find out about this, it'd just make him sad and all he wanted was for Dream to be happy. This was his problem and his problem alone.

"They're wrong Nightmare! You should've told me sooner! I'll talk with all of them tomorrow and explain everything. They can't attack you like that!" Dream was pretty much done with healing and had taken both of Nightmare's hands in his.

Nightmare shook his head. He really didn't want Dream involved. No one could make them stop, they wouldn't believe Dream if he told them he wasn't evil, they'd just say Nightmare was manipulating him for evil purposes. It would just be another reason for them to beat him since he was so obviously using their precious, innocent Dream to trick them and using him for some evil plan that didn't exist.

"Please, Dream. Just don't. I want you to be happy, you should just forget about me and just keep playing with your friends."

"NO!" Dream let go of Nightmare's hands and threw his arms around him instead. "You're my brother and I want you to be happy. I want to play with you! I'm going to make them see you're nice and then you can play with us too!"

Nightmare just sighed, knowing there was nothing he could say to stop Dream from getting involved but tried anyway. "They won't believe you," he muttered.

"I'll make them."

"Dream, they'll think I'm tricking you..."

Dream squeezed him tightly. "I'll make them see the truth! I can't just let them abuse you!"

Nightmare shook his head and hugged Dream back. "It won't work... But thank you anyway..."

The twins spent the night together huddled under the tree. Dream just wanted Nightmare to feel better and he was determined to make the villagers stop their abuse of his twin brother.

It didn't work. Just like Nightmare had said the villagers accused Nightmare of manipulation, they told Dream to keep away saying he'd only get hurt. Dream argued told them that his brother wasn't evil and that he wouldn't avoid his own twin. He told them Nightmare had never hurt anyone before. No one believed him, they really thought Nightmare had tricked their Dream and they decided that he needed saved. It all just caused arguments with the positive guardian. Dream just wanted them all to be friends, Nightmare wasn't a bad person and he wanted them to see that so he could bring his twin along with him when he went to play with his friends. He wanted to stop seeing Nightmare in pain.

But it wasn't working. They wouldn't believe him. No matter how much he argued. No matter how many times he had come between an angry group and his twin and had to chase them off.

One day Dream came up with an idea.

"Hey, Nighty!" Dream called happily sitting himself next to his brother again.

Nightmare nodded in acknowledgement. He was sitting, staring into space and hugging his knees to his chest.

"I have an idea!" Dream went on. Nightmare turned his head and looked at him, he looked so depressed but that make Dream more determined to help him. "It's getting worse. I know it is so don't try to tell me it's not! So I was thinking, to give you a break, we should swap clothes for a day! I'll pretend to be you and you pretend to be me and then once we swap back we'll tell them and they'll see you're really not bad!"

Nightmare blinked a couple of times at Dream before he simply said, "No."

Dream gasped and crossed his arms. "Why not?"

"Because that's stupid. They'll know."

Dream shook his head. "No, they won't. We're identical and we know each other well enough to act like the other for a day!"

Nightmare sighed. There was no way he was going to do that. He couldn't possibly act all cheerful for that long especially while hanging out with the people who hurt him. They wouldn't buy it and if they did that meant Dream could get hurt in his place. "And if they figure it out? Dream, they'll blame me, they'll think it was some sort of evil plan to get rid of you or to at least make them hurt you. They may even attack you thinking you're me!"

Dream shook his head. "They won't!"

"If you're dressed like me and acting like me they will. I won't let you get hurt."

"I won't let you get hurt!" Dream retorted. "I'll just hide all day. I've played hide and seek with the other kids lots of times! I know a lot of good hiding places and the villagers would never think to look for you in those places. I'll move around a lot too just in case. I'll be fine and it'll let you spend some time with other people or at least it'll give you a day of peace, since if you tell them you want a day for yourself they'll listen. Come on, just once!"

Nightmare looked away again. "No, I won't risk it."

"Please! This could help you make friends!"

"I don't want to be friends with people that hate me. They'll always hate me so just drop it. I'm not worth it."

"At least do it for a day off then!" Dream was desperate. He just wanted Nightmare to be happy and safe. "Nighty, please! Just one day!"

Nightmare shook his head. "No," he said firmly and then added before Dream had time to argue. "It wouldn't work anyway. We are identical but our eye-lights are different colours, so even if we swapped clothes our eyes will give us away."

"Oh..." Dream said as he slumped down. He had thought it was such a great idea too.

Nightmare turned to look at Dream again when he saw him slump in the corner of his eye and instantly felt bad. He was upsetting his wonderful twin so much recently, he knew Dream meant well but he just didn't think he was worth it. "It was a good idea Dream. It just wouldn't work. I'm happy you're trying to help me but it really doesn't matter. I can deal with it, I've still got you after all."

Dream still looked so disappointed as he muttered out, "yeah..."

Nightmare pulled Dream closed and hugged him quickly before he forced a smile. "Want me to read to you?"

Dream nodded. "Yeah, okay."

Dream wasn't going to give up the idea. Even if it just gave Nightmare one day of peace it was worth the risk to himself. He hoped that once he told the villagers that they'd switched for a day and the guardian that they'd spent time with was Nightmare and that he'd hadn't tried anything evil while dressed as Dream that they'd realise he was a good person and maybe give him a chance.

But their eye-lights... Dream had to find some way to change their eye-lights. An illusion spell or contacts could work but he'd have to learn the spell or buy contacts, either way he would have to speak with a villager and he couldn't have anyone knowing what he was planning. That'd just ruin everything... There had to be a way.

Dream wasn't going to give up so he decided to go to the village library and read up on spell books. He couldn't look like he was looking for a certain spell so he read through all sorts of spells and learnt some unrelated ones. He told anyone that asked about it that he was just interested in learning new spells for games, he even got some help with learning some. No one thought twice when he eventually got to the illusion spell. Dream was just curious, Dream just wanted to use these harmless spells for games, Dream was just learning it for fun.

"Hello, Nighty!" Dream called as he skipped up behind his twin.

"Hey," Nightmare muttered, not turning around. He was just staring down at the ground, lost in his depression.

"Nighty, please look at me." Dream sat down and smiled gently.

Nightmare sighed and turned around. He jumped when he looked up and stared at his brother in shock. "Dream... What did you do to your eyes?!" He said in horror... His brother's eyes were purple like his.

Dream laughed and clapped his hands. "Yay! It worked! It's an illusion spell, it doesn't even take a lot to keep them looking like this. It's such a small change so it really doesn't take much magic at all! A small child could do it!"

Nightmare just looked at him in horror. He knew what this was about and he wasn't having it. "No," he said before Dream could even ask.

Dream tilted his head. "No what?"

"I'm not swapping places with you, Dream. I won't let them hurt you."

"I'm doing this for you, Nighty. To help you."

"Well I don't want your help!" Nightmare snapped. "I can deal with it! I'm not going to let you risk yourself!"

Dream shook his head and took Nightmare's hand. "It'll be fine. I'll hide. Please, one day!"

"No."

"One afternoon?"

"Dream, drop it. I'm fine."

"You're not fine!" Dream squeezed Nightmare's hand. "You're getting more and more depressed! They keep hurting you! Just once. It'll help. One day of no fear, no pain, no sadness. Then they'll see!"

Nightmare looked away. He knew Dream wasn't going to drop it, maybe he could just go along with it as long as Dream promised to stay hidden. Nightmare would have an easier time avoiding people dressed as his brother...

"Fine."

"Really!? Yay!" Dream smiled and hugged Nightmare in celebration.

"One afternoon and you have to promise to hide until we swap back," Nightmare told him firmly, "and when it doesn't work and they still hate me, you drop it."

"I promise I'll be okay! And this will work! It has to!" Dream said as he hugged his twin tighter and put more of his weight into the hug, pushing Nightmare back.

Nightmare's back hit the ground and he pushed at Dream to get him off. "Dream! You're crushing me!"

Dream let go and laughed. He was just happy Nightmare was going along with his plan. He was going to make things better for his brother!

Nightmare really couldn't believe he had gone along with this. It was a stupid idea, so, so stupid. He sat under the tree at Dream's side, in Dream's clothes with an illusion spell making his eyes look gold. He felt ridiculous, he thought he looked ridiculous. It wasn't like he thought Dream looked ridiculous, but Nightmare thought he did, they may look the same but they weren't the same. Bright colours weren't Nightmare's thing at all even if he did look just like his brother, he wasn't Dream and he'd rather have his own dark clothes. This really couldn't work.

Dream had looked so happy when they changed, it was weird seeing his brother dressed like the him but while Nightmare had voiced how weird he found it, Dream had laughed and said his brother looked good. Dream had then happily ran off to hide somewhere until nightfall. Nightmare just hoped he wouldn't blow it.

They had swapped an hour ago and Nightmare had spend that time reading, it was no different to what he normally did and the fear was still there. He was so scared someone would come and would know he wasn't Dream. At least he didn't have to act cheerful unless someone showed up.

It wasn't long before a group did come running happily to the tree. All Nightmare felt was fear fill his entire being but it was just a group of children. Kids never did anything to him, the adults had strictly told their children to keep away from him, that he was bad and would hurt them so kids always ran from him. It was weird to see the group of kids running over to him happily.

"Hi Dream!" They called as they got closer. They looked so happy, they couldn't tell the difference it seemed.

Nightmare took a deep breath. He was Dream right now, he had to be happy and cheerful and full of life. He forced a smile that he hoped wasn't noticeably forced and called back. "Hey, guys!" He thought he sounded ridiculous, there was no way they'd really think he was Dream. They'd know, they'd see he's not acting right...

They didn't seem to notice. A couple of the younger ones jumped onto him and give him a big hug as they giggled. It took everything Nightmare had not to push them off and run. He was Dream, Dream would laugh and hug them back... So that's what he did. Fear still consumed him, if they noticed he wasn't Dream and got their parents Nightmare would be in a lot of trouble. He wasn't trying to corrupt children but their parents would think he was. This was such a bad idea.

"Come play with us!" One of the older children called happily.

Shit... Nightmare thought. He didn't really want to play with the kids but Dream would. He had to get out of this, there was no way he'd be able to keep up the act if he was to run around and play. He didn't know the rules of the games, Dream did. Nightmare never played so Dream was probably fitter than he was...

Dream did say people would leave him alone if he said so...

He had to say it in a way Dream would. "Oh, I don't know..." He said still trying to sound cheery. "I'm really tired and was hoping to rest a bit. Maybe we can play later."

That was met with a chorus of, "aww," from the children who all looked so disappointed. Nightmare would've been happy to leave it like that and let them go but Dream wouldn't. Dream wouldn't want them to be sad and he couldn't raise any suspicions.

"Don't look so sad!" He said all the while he was thinking 'act like Dream, act like Dream.' "We can do something else together! ...I could read to you?"

The children looked happy about that and they all agreed with enthusiasm. Each child shouted out what story they wanted all at once and that made Nightmare genuinely laugh.

"Hey, hey. One at a time! I can read more than one story if you want. Let's all agree on one to start with, with a vote? Fair?"

The children agreed to that quickly. They must really respect Dream to listen so well to him, Nightmare had expected more of a fight.

Before he knew it Nightmare was sitting in a circle with a group of children and reading stories to them, even doing voices for each character. He was still terrified that they'd notice or an adult would come and notice but nothing happened. Soon he was actually feeling happy, he was actually having fun. He didn't think twice about making jokes with them about the stories. When one boy didn't like the choice for the next story and snatched it out of Nightmare's hands, Nightmare gave chase all while laughing with the boy. The fear never left him but he really was having fun, and it made him sad that he couldn't do this all the time. It made him sad that the only reason all these kids were hanging out with him was because they thought he was Dream. Once they found out they would hate him. They wouldn't look back at this day with fondness but hatred...

Nightmare had had a lot of fun. The children's parents had come to get them and had treated Nightmare kindly. They thanked him for looking after their kids while they worked, even though Nightmare was younger than some of them and each of them offered to take him home and let him have dinner with them as thanks. Nightmare turned them down easily saying, "it's alright, I promised Nightmare I'd have dinner with him tonight." They had scowled at him at that and attempted to tell him about how Nightmare was trying to manipulate him and that he shouldn't be hanging out with him. They had no idea they were talking to Nightmare. He just brushed them off saying what he'd heard Dream say before, "He's my brother." "He's not evil." "I love him." Etc. It was enough to get them to drop it and take their kids home with a final warning for him to be careful around Nightmare.

Nightmare just sighed as he sat down and picked up another book. It really hurt to hear that they were saying all these things to Dream, he shouldn't have to hear it. He knew they hated him but he didn't want them to turn his own twin against him. It was already hard enough seeing them all praising Dream and showering him with love, while Nightmare was ignored and beaten. He tried not to think about it as he opened his book and began to read. Dream should be back soon to swap back and he could go back to being lonely and hated.

Dream didn't show up. Nightmare tried not to worry. Maybe there was a crowd near Dream's hiding spot and he was waiting for them to leave before he left. Maybe he had fallen asleep or lost track of time. Maybe he had gotten lost somehow...

But it was getting later and later and Dream still wasn't back. Nightmare couldn't help but worry, what if he'd gotten caught...?

He tried to ignore his worry but it just got worse and he figured it wouldn't hurt to go looking. After all he was still dressed as Dream; no one would think it strange that he was wandering around town. They probably wouldn't like the fact he was looking for 'Nightmare' but he wasn't just going to sit around waiting.

He began to walk into the village. A sickening feeling coming over him, he just hoped it was his normal negativity. He really hoped Dream wasn't hurt...


	2. Disaster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Violence, abuse and small amount of suicidal-ish thoughts.

Nightmare tried not to run. He didn't want to accidentally run past Dream and he didn't want to look suspicious, Dream running wasn't weird but if he panicked it would seem odd. There was something wrong, Dream was late, and Dream would never be late for something like this. He knew how Nightmare felt uncomfortable dressed like this; he wouldn't leave him without reason. Nightmare had to find him, he had to make sure he was alright.

"Dream!" Someone shouted. If Nightmare had a heart it would've skipped a beat and he looked around to see where his twin was, only to realise the person was talking to him.

 _Right, I'm dressed like Dream. I'm Dream. Act like Dream._ Nightmare thought to himself and took a deep breath before he turned to the rabbit monster and smiled. "Oh, h-hello!" It was so hard to keep his voice from shaking but he had to keep up the cheerful act, he couldn't show his fear.

The rabbit jogged up to him, smiling at him kindly. "What are you doing wandering around alone at night?"

Nightmare wanted to run. He recognised this monster as one of his abusers, although they weren't as bad as some others. Still he didn't want to talk to them and he didn't want them to look at him like that. He knew they hated him. _Act like Dream,_ he thought again. Although at this point he was wondering if it was worth it but he at least wanted to know where Dream was in case he needed to save him.

"I'm just looking for Nightmare. He didn't show up for dinner and I got worried." He smiled at the rabbit, he had to be positive about it. His first thought was that his twin was hurt but that wouldn't be Dream's first thought. "I'm sure he's fine. Probably got lost in a book and lost track of time but he really needs to eat." He hoped that sounded enough like Dream.

The rabbit frowned at him. "I wouldn't be concerned about _him_ at all. Let him hide away, the more time you spend apart the better. We wouldn't want him to poison your mind with his stupid negativity." They spat on the ground in disgust and Nightmare tried his best not to get angry. They could call him evil and a freak all they wanted but he _hated_ how they were accusing him of manipulating, tricking and poisoning Dream. He wasn't. Dream was his only light, his only friend and he'd never hurt his brother. Why couldn't they just see that?

He couldn't let them see his anger, he had to keep up the act. "Don't say that. He's _not._ I just want to find him and go back to the tree." The rabbit looked him up and down and Nightmare felt even more uncomfortable. He had said that more harshly than he'd meant...

"Are you alright, Dream?"

"Oh, yes! I'm fine, maybe a little tired," Nightmare smiled up at the other, being as cheerful as he could, hoping he hadn't been caught.

The rabbit smiled back at him and put their arm around him, resting their hand on his shoulder, he tried not to flinch away. "Tell you what, why don't I look for Nightmare for you and send him back? You can go rest."

There was no way he was going to trust someone who threw rocks at him. "It's alright, I can keep looking." He kept smiling, it was so hard to do, so tiring. "I'd appreciate the help though! We can look for him together!" He'd rather not but he knew Dream would suggest something like that.

The rabbit laughed lightly. "Alright... Well, I just came from that street and didn't see any signs of him so let's go this way!" They used the arm they had around Nightmare to push him to a street to the left. It almost felt like they were pushing him that way on purpose and Nightmare immediately became suspicious, they seemed very determined to go left... Too determined. Was Dream to the right? Nightmare couldn't say anything though, Dream never suspected his friends, he would go without resistance. It made it easy for them to lure Dream away so they could beat Nightmare... Was that what they were doing right now...? He had to find a way to go right without looking like he was suspecting them. If he told them the truth now and he was wrong then he'd get beaten for no reason but if his suspicions were correct and there was a group hurting Dream and this was a distraction... He had to think of something fast...

"AAAAAAHHHHH!"

"IDIOT! SHUT HIM UP! DREAM'S STILL TOO CLOSE!"

Nightmare froze where he stood. That was Dream, they _were_ hurting him! He pulled away from the rabbit without much thought and ran in the direction of the scream ignoring the protests that were being called.

He ran into the right street and into an ally and stopped in his tracks. He knew Dream was being hurt, that much was obvious by the scream but he thought it would've just been a normal beating, a few kicks, rocks being thrown. But, no, Dream was laying on the ground, a black eye, clothes torn, covered in cuts and cracks, both legs broken badly, maybe even a few broken ribs... This was way worse than any beating Nightmare ever got and Dream _still_ had the illusion going, his gold aura looking purple. Why had he let this happen? Why hadn't he given up the plan and told them who he really was...?

Nightmare just acted. He ran to his twin's side shoving the abusers out of the way as he did so, he fell to his knees next to him and being as careful as he could he pulled Dream up to hold him. Dream hissed out in pain as he was pulled up and Nightmare gave up trying to get him up and just rested Dream's back on his legs as he hugged him. Both twins were crying as Nightmare held Dream close and rocked them back and forth.

"Idiot," Nightmare whispered, "I told you this was a bad idea!" He felt so guilty, it should've been him that was hurt not Dream. Not Dream...

Dream just smiled up at him. "It's okay... Better me than you... I wanted to help... Did you have fun?" Dream muttered back.

"Does that matter? Oh god... Look at what they've done..." Nightmare looked over his brother, all the wounds... How could they not have realised they were hurting Dream?

The attackers couldn't hear what was being said but they still wanted 'Dream' away from 'Nightmare' and called out to them. "Hey, come on Dream, back away from him before he hurts you..."

Nightmare's head snapped up to look at them. "Are you out of your minds!?" he snapped. "Does it look like he's in any position to do anything!? Look at what you've done to him!"

They all looked taken aback by 'Dream's' sudden outburst and one human stepped forward. "Dream, I know you want to see good in everyone but Nightmare's evil! He's the cause of everyone's suffering!"

Nightmare held Dream tighter. He couldn't believe they'd gone so far and it just had to go this far on the day Dream had swapped places with him. He looked back at his brother and being as gentle as he could he slipped an arm under his femurs and tried to lift him. Dream screamed out in pain at the attempt, however, and Nightmare quickly put him back down.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," he tried to sooth. "I need to get you somewhere safe so you can heal..."

"Why?" Another attacker asked. "He doesn't deserve it, let him bleed out. It's best for everyone that way!"

Nightmare ignored them, he wasn't going to just leave Dream here to 'bleed out' they were immortal; all that would do would leave him suffering. "How did this even happen...?" Nightmare asked as he gently stroked Dream's skull trying to calm him down.

"...Found me..." Dream muttered as he sobbed. "...Attacked... Got really bad... Tried to run away... Got caught... Broke my legs to stop me running... Got worse... Brother... It's hurts..."

Nightmare was at a loss for words. Could they really not tell them apart? They loved Dream so much and yet they couldn't tell they were attacking the wrong brother...

"Dream, come on. He's not worth it. Let's just go play somewhere? Forget about that thing."

"Yeah come on. Leave him and let's go!"

Nightmare squeezed Dream a little tighter. It was all his fault... It was because of him that Dream was hurt so badly... If he was better it wouldn't have happened... If he didn't exist it wouldn't have happened...

"If you all want to go so bad, go!" Nightmare snapped. "I'm going to get him healed!"

"We can't just stay back and let him use you!"

"He's _not!_ " Nightmare had given up trying to act like Dream that didn't matter anymore.

"Dream, are you sure you're okay?" The rabbit asked. "It's just Nightmare, it's not a big deal."

"NOT A BIG DEAL?" Nightmare shouted. "LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO HIM! YOU FUCKING _BROKE HIS LEGS!_ HE CAN'T FUCKING WALK! WHAT THE _FUCK_ IS WRONG WITH YOU!?"

The attackers looked at each other in shock. They'd never seen Dream get angry, they'd never heard him swear. "Dream, come on, you're not acting like yourself."

Something in Nightmare snapped. They _still_ thought he was Dream even after he snapped at them like that. He carefully lay Dream down on the ground again and apologised under his breath when Dream let out a pained mewl. Then he stood and faced the group and a strange calm passed over him as he stared at them and he spoke calmly. "So, you think you know us so well?" He asked.

They looked confused and just started at Nightmare until someone spoke up. "Well, yeah. We know you well, Dream. We've all hung out with you a lot and we know how evil your so called 'brother' is."

Nightmare's hands formed fists and he spoke again keeping the same calm. "No, you clearly don't. If you know us so well you'd know he's not Nightmare and that I'm not Dream!"

He was met with a chorus of, "what?!"

Nightmare turned back to Dream and asked gently. "Why didn't you drop the spell? Why didn't you stop them?"

Dream smiled up at him again. "...I didn't want to ruin your day off... Dropping the spell for me drops it for you... 'Sides if they knew then they'd go looking..."

"That doesn't matter!" Nightmare snapped. "Dream, look at yourself! Why would you want to let them hurt you? You could've stopped them! ...Y-you could've st-stopped them..." Nightmare sobbed, he couldn't believe it, his twin, his light, the perfect, innocent Dream got hurt and it _was meant to be him!_

"Wait what!?" Several of the attackers called to the twins in disbelief.

Nightmare turned back to them. "You fools! _I'm_ Nightmare! Dream and I swapped for the day! You _hurt Dream!_ "

"What?"

"No... That can't be..."

"But his eyes are purple..."

Nightmare ignored the comments and turned back to his brother. "Dream, drop the spell. They know and you need all the energy you can get."

Dream didn't respond apart from quietly removing the spell. Nightmare's eyes turned back to purple and Dream's back to gold.

"You... You did this on purpose!"

"You made us hurt Dream!"

"You were playing with my daughter earlier... What did you do to her?! If you tried to do anything to her or trick her; I'll kill you!"

"It was Dreams idea!" Nightmare snapped back to the enraged group who were now shouting at him. "Not like you'll listen to me. I just wanted one afternoon of peace! That's the only reason I went along with it! But I guess that's too much to ask for... You all hate me, I get it. I hate myself too. But you can't even tell when it's Dream pretending to be me! _You're the ones that hurt him!_ "

The crowd all muttered to themselves before enraged shouting began. "He tricked us all!"

"He made us hurt Dream!"

"What did you even do to force poor Dream to go along with it!?"

"We should burn all the negative apples!"

"We need to get rid of Nightmare!"

Nightmare ignored them once again and bent down ready to pick up his twin. "Hey, Dream. I'm going to pick you up now. No matter how I do it, it'll hurt but I need to get you out of here. There's too much negativity for you to heal."

Dream nodded weakly, he looked ready to pass out at any moment and part of Nightmare wished he would at least then he wouldn't be as aware of the pain. "Okay... Really want... Go home..." Dream murmured clearly trying to fight unconsciousness.

People were throwing stones now. That just pissed Nightmare off more, he was the target but Dream was close to him and not everyone had good aim. He got in front of his brother to shield him from any miss fire and he snapped at them again. "You idiots! You're hitting Dream!"

"Then step away from him!"

"Get away from _our_ Dream!"

"We won't let you hurt him anymore!"

"We'll take care of him!"

Nightmare quickly picked up his brother who let out another pained scream as he was moved. That didn't go over well with the angry mob.

"See _you're_ hurting him!"

"He's going to hurt him more!"

"Someone stop him!"

"Let Dream go!"

Two men ran forward and tried to pull Dream out of Nightmare's arms but Dream had wrapped his arms around Nightmare as tightly as he could and clung to him. "N-no!" Dream whined out. "...Want... Stay... With... Nighty..."

"If you keep pulling him like that you'll hurt him more!" Nightmare snapped again and once they backed off even slightly Nightmare turned his back to them, keeping Dream out of reach.

"Look at what you've done! He shouldn't stay with you! We won't let you hurt him anymore!"

"I'VE NOT DONE ANYTHING!" Nightmare yelled. "DREAM WANTED TO SWAP! HE WANTED ME TO MAKE FRIENDS! IT'S A DISASTER! _YOU PEOPLE_ HURT HIM! I'M _HELPING_ HIM!"

"Nighty's... Good..." Dream called out. "Don't... Hurt... My brother! ...My idea... Swapping my idea..."

"Hand him over!" More of the attackers stepped forward.

"We're tired of you!"

"We won't let you trick Dream anymore! Not after this..."

Dream was trembling in Nightmare's arms as he shook his head. "No! ...Nighty... Want to stay with Nighty... Want to go home... With Nighty!"

"We're going home Dream," Nightmare told him and began to walk away from the crowd.

They didn't like that. They didn't like that at all. Half of them ran around the twins and blocked their path leaving the twins surrounded.

"Get out of my way!" Nightmare snapped, "I'm taking my brother home. He doesn't want to be with the people who hurt him!"

"He needs to learn it was _your_ fault!"

"If it wasn't for you he'd be alright!"

Nightmare shook his head. "Look, you hate me, _I know!_ It's my fault, _I know!_ But just let me take Dream home and help him heal and then, once he's better, I'll come back here and you can do whatever you want with me. Deal?"

"No! We'll help Dream! He doesn't need you!"

" _Please!_ " Dream cried, he was getting desperate now, everything hurt and all he wanted was to go back to the tree with his twin. "It hurts... Just let us go home!"

"You'll come home with one of us, Dream." Someone said so gently.

"NO!" Dream shouted only to cough right after, "...I want Nighty!"

"Ya know what? ...Fuck this." One human called and marched towards Nightmare and punched him in the face. Nightmare stumbled back and his grip on Dream loosened as did Dream's grip on him. The human took that chance and scooped Dream out of Nightmare's arms and fled into the group.

The other's took their chance and rushed at Nightmare. Punches, kicks, rocks, belts. The little guardian didn't stand a chance against such a large group, all he could do was try to cover his face and curl up on the ground as he was brutally attacked. The hits just keep coming and Nightmare had no means of escape nor did he have anyway to defend himself so he was forced to lay there and take the beating. He heard something brake but he couldn't really tell what; every part of his body was being hit, everything hurt and it just didn't stop.

Dream screamed and cried and begged for them to stop but they didn't listen. He wanted to go home, he wanted to play with his brother... They wouldn't listen to him and he couldn't struggle, he couldn't help. He was far too wounded to do anything, all he could do was beg weakly as his brother screamed.

It didn't last too long before the mob got tired. After all they had spent a lot of time and energy attacking the wrong twin. Nightmare was left lying on the ground in pain, not as bad as Dream but bad enough that he was struggling to try to stand. At least two broken ribs, cuts, bruises, cracks, pain.

"Let's get out of here," the rabbit said. "We need to heal Dream. His punishment can wait!"

The others agreed and began to walk away until one of them called out, "Wait!" He ripped the crown off of Nightmare's skull roughly and held it up. "This is Dream's! The clothes are fucked but he needs his crown back!"

"You're right!" The human holding Dream agreed and someone else came over and carefully removed Nightmare's crown from Dream's skull and tossed it as hard as they could in the opposite direction before taking Dream's and wiping it off with their shirt.

Dream hardly noticed when his crown was gently placed back on his head. He just reached out for his brother, still begging to be allowed to go home with him. They all just left, some expressing concern for Dream and apologising to him, other's talking shit about Nightmare and making fun of him.

Nightmare just lay on the ground and sobbed, he tried to calm down but he just couldn't stop crying. He blamed himself for what happened to Dream, he didn't deserve such a perfect brother, he'd always be lesser than him, everything felt so much worse now. Eventually Nightmare pulled himself up and struggled to limp over to his crown, that had been tossed so far away from where he was and in the opposite direction from where he wanted to go as well. He looked down at it, the normally shining gold was covered in mud and his brother's 'blood.'

Nightmare cried and held the crown close to his chest. It wasn't fair; he had just wanted to help his brother. He just wanted to be happy like Dream was. Instead he was left feeling more depressed and lonely than ever. He broke down and just cried and cried until he tired himself out, then he limped off back to the tree. There was no way he'd be able to get Dream back, he was hurt and outnumbered. Besides they'd take care of Dream and Dream would forgive them. Nightmare was just useless and Dream was better off without him.

* * *

It didn't matter how much Dream argued and pleaded with them, they wouldn't let him go home to Nightmare, they wouldn't even let him write to his twin or send any kind of message to let him know he was alright. He was kept in a house until he healed and could walk again. It'd be a while since the breaks were bad and he was kept from the tree and gold apples. He only had one apple on him that he still had from his last trip into the village when he healed an elder.

Dream just wanted to see Nightmare, it had been going so well and had ended so badly. He had just wanted to help Nightmare and in the end he just made things worse. No one would believe him, they believed more than ever that Nightmare was tricking him. Dream couldn't get through to them... No matter what he did, no matter how much he cried they were still convinced that Nightmare was evil.

Dream was traumatised from the attack, he was plagued by night-terrors and panic attacks but none of the attackers took responsibility for it, instead they blamed Nightmare. They sat down with Dream and tried to tell him it was Nightmare's fault it happened and that Nightmare had planned for it to happen, they even went as far as to tell Dream that Nightmare was sending him his nightmares. Dream wouldn't believe their lies, he knew none of it was true. All he wanted was to go back to the tree and never see these people again. They were horrible, even those who were apologising just ended it with, "but you know _was_ Nightmare's fault." Why was it so hard for them to see that Nightmare wasn't what they said he was? Why was it so hard to convince them that Nightmare was a good person?

Dream looked up when he heard the door open and a little girl wandered in with a book in her hands. She smiled up at Dream and came over to him. "Hello, Dream. Can I sit with you?"

Dream smiled back at her and shuffled over on the bed to make space for the child. His legs were bandaged and healing but he was still stuck in bed. He had to get his own clothes delivered to him and Nightmare's returned. The villagers had lent him other clothes while they fixed and washed his but they had done nothing with Nightmare's. Dream had even offered to fix his brother's but they just took them off him and told him that Nightmare didn't deserve nice things. Dream didn't agree but once again they wouldn't listen. Dream wouldn't give up, he'd never give up.

The little girl happily got into the bed next to Dream and hugged him. Dream carefully hugged her back and she giggled. Dream just couldn't act the same as he normally would, he was so worried about his twin and nothing anyone did would distract him from asking about his brother or trying to convince them Nightmare was a good guy.

"Hey, Dream?"

"Yeah?" Dream asked. He really hated being stuck in bed but he was always happy when his friends came to see him even though he would rather have his brother.

"That day... That was Nightmare that read to us, wasn't it?" She asked looking away.

Dream nodded. "Yeah, it was."

The little girl frowned in thought and then looked up to Dream. "I don't understand. All the grownups say he's evil! But he was really nice to us, he read lots of stories and did voices and played with us! My parents told me he was tricking us but he never tried to make us do anything bad. He never got mad when we talked over him or anything. He was just really nice!"

Dream smiled down at the child. He was really happy that at least someone saw Nightmare for what he was; a good person. "That's because Nightmare _is_ really nice. People are wrong when they say he's evil. He's my twin brother and I love him."

The little girl smiled at Dream again. "Well, I'm going to help you make everyone else see that he's really a good guy!" She announced happily.

Dream beamed with happiness at that. It had ended so badly but if one person saw the truth there were bound to be others. There was hope. He _would_ make everyone see that Nightmare was a good guy. "Thank you so much!" He thanked the child who giggled and held up the book.

"I'll read to you!" She said happily.

* * *

Dream had finally recovered from his wounds. As soon as he was allowed to leave he went running back to the tree. He had to tell Nightmare that despite everything his plan had worked and all the children Nightmare had read to were going to help him. They were all going to work together and show everyone that Nightmare wasn't evil. All the children who had spent time with Nightmare were under strict supervision by their parents but Dream was sure he would be able to sneak them out to visit Nightmare. In fact he already had a plan for how he'd sneak them out.

But it was already too late. Nightmare couldn't take the pain, loneliness, guilt and fear anymore. Everything that had happened had been too much for him and he was past the point of no return. Dream was so perfect to everyone and he was hurt because of Nightmare. The villagers had been the ones to attack him but the reason it happened was Nightmare and he felt as if he might as well have been the one to do it. He hurt his own brother and he had to pay for it, he was better off dead and gone.

Everyone loved Dream and Nightmare just wanted to be loved too. He had just wanted to prove he could be as good as Dream, that he could protect the golden apples too.

That was a bad idea.

He corrupted the golden apple just by touching it.

He killed the tree; his mother.

...He bit into the black apple.

And another...

And another...

And another...

Another...

Another...

Another...

Another...

Another...

He ate all of them.

He screamed as his bones cracked and tentacles ripped out of his back, a black goop began to cover his body. He looked over to his twin who was looking on in horror...

Everything had been for nothing. Swapping places, Dream getting attacked... It hadn't worked, it was too late. Nightmare was screaming out as he was corrupted. The innocent child who had done nothing wrong would soon be more evil than what the villagers had claimed and Dream felt all his hope for a better future brought on by the children shatter. Nothing would be the same again.

_If only I'd done more... If only I'd noticed sooner... If only I wasn't so_ _naive..._

Tears fell from Dream's eyes as he mourned what was and what could have been if Nightmare had just waited that bit longer...

With one last look at his twin brother Nightmare forced one last smile. "Please... don't forget who I used to be." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so I made this really sad... It's been a long long time since I wrote something with a sad ending. Last time I wrote something sad was my Death Note B/A fanfics that I wrote back in 2014/2015 since they were first uploaded on Fanfiction.net and damn I forgot how much I liked writing sad stuff... Guess I'm a bit sadistic...


End file.
